Posts Tagged ‘bmw i8’

It’s a car that looks like it was just unveiled by a manufacturer as their latest concept vehicle, one that would certainly never enter production. The BMW i8 has defied all reasoning and has not only entered production, but has been hitting the roads. Here, Chris Harris takes the i8 out for a rip on some canyon roads just outside of Los Angeles and shares his thoughts on how it drives. He also tested in a more conventional scenario taking the i8 through traffic and for a quick bite at In-N-Out.

To refresh, the BMW i8 is powered by a turbo-charged 1.5L 3-cylinder gasoline engine that pumps out 231 horsepower and 236 lb-ft of torque. Decent, but definitely not what you want powering a sports car of any sort. Coupled to the front wheels is an electric motor that provides a further 131 horsepower and 184 lb-ft of torque for a combined total of 362 horsepower and 420 lb-ft of torque. That’s more like it! The hybrid powerplant is capable of rocketing the i8 from 0-60 in 4.4 seconds thanks in part to its roughly 3200lb weight. Oh, and it does all this while only consuming just 2.5L / 100km.

For those of you who are looking forward to some hooning, remember that this was filmed on open public roads. Another note is the tire choice for this particular test. The BMW i8 is typically equipped with some narrow rubber (195 fronts and 215 rears) but this particular model that Chris Harris took out was equipped with the optional 215s up front and 245s in the rear.

Hybrids are the name of the game in today’s automotive world, even when we’re talking about high-end, high-performance supercars. Porsche just unveiled their plug-in hybrid super sportscar, the 918 Spyder, to news that it had smashed the nurburgring record by 14 seconds. It doesn’t seem all that long ago that whenever we heard the word “hybrid” we thought of cars like the Toyota Prius, not nurburgring laptime record holders. While the BMW i8 is not about to set any records, it does reiterate the fact that hybrids and high-performance are not mutually exclusive.

BMW’s is premiering the 2015 BMW i8 plug in hybrid sports car at the Frankfurt Auto Show. The leaked photos seen here shows what’s been changed since the concept version 2 years ago. The doors are no longer all glass, and are sized proportionately to the rest of the car. The i8 features a 3 cylinder 1.5L turbo engine developing 231hp, coupled with a 6 speed automatic gearbox that propels the rear wheels. The front wheels are powered by a 131hp electric motor through a 2 speed automatic transmission. This setup, in full power mode, allows the i8 to run 0-100km/h in only 4.5 seconds, with a top speed of 250km/h. All this while delivering average fuel economy of 2.5L/100km.